<p>It is shown that the fragment and replicate (FR) distributed join algorithm is a specialcase of the symmetric fragment and replicate (SFR) algorithm, which improves the FRalgorithm by reducing its communication. The SFR algorithm, like the FR algorithm, isapplicable to N-way joins and nonequijoins and does tuple balancing automatically. Theauthors derive formulae that show how to minimize the communication in the SFRalgorithm, discuss its performance on a parallel database prototype, and evaluate itspracticality under various conditions. It is claimed that SFR improves the worst-case costfor a distributed join, but it will not displace specialized distributed join algorithms whenthe later are applicable.</p>